Tag Archives: Organic

One of the things I really wanted to do when I started my current position as Digital Design Manager at Dark was to try to generate some interest around computational design. I’m absolutely no computational nor design expert, but I have some interest when it comes to conceptual modeling tools, math and visual programming, and as with many things in life; when you like something you stick with it.

We put together 6 workshops, most of them with different attendees. This meant we spent some time on introductions to the concepts and tools available each time we met. Still, I was very impressed by the work that we managed to produce during the 3 hours these workshops lasted.

I normally divide the workshops in three parts; during the first hour I show something I believe will be new to the present attendees, the second hour everyone model something from their imagination – totally without creative constraints or guidelines, but before we start I announce that during the last hour every participant must present their work to the others. That has a tendency to up the prestige slightly. I guess I never actually mentioned that their work would also be published online…

We’ve mostly used Autodesk Vasari during these sessions. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to spend much time on visual programming and Dynamo yet, but this is something I hope we can dive into at the start of 2014. I’m sure Zach Kron will recognize some of the patterns in our exercises, as we’ve used his YouTube on several occasions. I bow in honor.

While these interactive training sessions are mainly for Dark employees we have at times invited certain individuals from other companies and educational institutions. If you’d like to be invited to these workshops, please let me know and perhaps we can make it happen. They will also most likely be published in the Events section on Relinquish.

Here is a sober selection of the creative work we produced during some of these very inspirational workshops:

I’m afraid I’m starting to bore my readers with this repeated going on and on about Image-O-Matic and animated Mass families. For that I’m sorry, but I have yet another example of it’s potential use.

Some time back I saw a link on Twitter followed by some exchange of ideas between some people I follow. The link was to artist Ned Kahn’s webpage and work, and the discussion basically evaluated different possibilities for this kind of thing to be modeled and visualized in Revit. As I remember, one of the proposals during the discussion that followed was: *Surprise* Image-O-Matic!

Of course I immediately had to scrape the idea of making identical stuff in Revit, with multiple waves and large surfaces, and confine it to mere inspiration.

I produced two models, one vertical facade and one horizontal ceiling above a pool “sort of thing”. The first video was a prototype and the second is the finished product of the vertical surface.

Details from the Adaptive Component family:

This is basically a simple disc, hosted on a Reference Line that tilts according to an angle that in turn increases when the Adaptive Placement Point number 2 gets closer. This is done with a simple tan-function.

The second Reference Point gets hosted on a Reference Line, and the position of the point on that line is associated with a Number Parameter that is used for animation.

Here is the Mass family and parameters:

The point that controls the displacement in the Mass family is hosted to the end of a Reference Line, that is in turn rotated around the Mass center.

The last animation of the vertical facade took about a day to make, with approximately 200 HD images being generated and assembled. And yet it is too short, as the Reference Point moves far too fast because of the long hosting Reference Line. Also I’m not totally loving the robotic presence the symmetrical layout and movement makes.

The “surface above pool” model is nice, although also very robotic. Here, the Reference Point moves on a circular path around the pattern’s center. I’ve also put in a variable that uses a sine function to control the amount of angular displacement.

I could probably make this easier by just tilting the disc towards the second Reference Point, and do more work on the Reference Line defining the path (give it a height for instance), but that would ruin my math and hence my day.

Ironically I like the first (prototype) animation best. That’s probably because the Reference Point moves slow, and on a fairly organic path. Too bad I didn’t make it HD or save a backup. And what do we learn from this? Never neglect your first work.